


One Year

by New_Elysia



Series: Fatherhood AU [10]
Category: The Chronicles Of Vladimir Tod - Zac Brewer
Genre: AU, Birthday, Gen, Smol Vlad, Vampires, fatherhood AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 21:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11608971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/New_Elysia/pseuds/New_Elysia
Summary: Happy Birthday, Vlad





	One Year

D’ablo moved the small bundle of colorful foil ballons to the center of the coffee table. His steel gray eyes moved down to Vladimir, who was supporting himself on the edge of the table.

The boy was attempting to reach for the decorative base that held the balloons in place, but his little hands couldn’t quite reach the shiny red wrapping.

Vladimir smacked the table top, babbling out his displeasure.

D’ablo wasn’t sure why Otis wanted to insist that D’Ablo throw the boy a birthday party. After all, the kid had no friends, he was far too young for school and far too young to play at the park. The only people Vladimir knew where the vampires in the council building.

And that was just a little over half a dozen vampires.

There was also the fact the kid wouldn’t remember this or anything prior to around the age of three or four.

And Vampires rarely celebrated birthdays, after a while, the years began to blend together. Celebrating each individual year was seen as being trivial and pointless.

It was far more customary to celebrate ‘mile stones’ in a vampires life. Celebrating when a vampire managed to make it to their first century, then a century and a half, then a second century, and so on.

But Otis said it would be good for Vladimir. Apparently, when he got older, Vladimir would appreciate the fact that D’Ablo went through all the trouble for him and would look back at the pictures with some fondness.

So, D’ablo had set to work. He bought some simple decorations, a candle, toys to wrap up, and he baked a simple cake.

D’ablo had only invited the rest of his council and Otis to the ‘party’. It would just be something simple and easy to manage.

It would also be easy on the boy, who didn’t seem comfortable in crowded situations.

D’Ablo leaned down and picked Vlad up. The boy fussed with displeasure at being taken away from the multicolored ballons, his hands reaching over in a vain attempt to grabbed on.

Otis walked into the room carrying a small stack of wrapped boxes “everything ready?” he asked, placing them down on the coffee table.

“I believe so” D’Ablo said, glancing around the room. His cats were already absent, as if sensing there would be more people than normal arriving at his house.

“Are you sure all of this is necessary?” D’Ablo then questioned, still seeing all of this as being a bit much for a kid who wouldn’t even remember this.

Otis smiled “yes, of course.” He said, the blond vampire walked over and moved into Vladimir’s line of sight.

Vladimir tried to look around his uncle, still dead set on trying to get the balloons.

“It will mean so much to him in the future, I promise you that it will,” Otis said, reaching out to take Vladimir from D’Ablo. The vampire in black let Otis balance the Halfling child on his hip.

“If you say so” D’Ablo huffed.

Vlad began to squirm in Otis’ hold, he already seemed anxious to get back to wondering the room like he normally did.

Since the kid learned how to crawl, he’d been wondering around whatever room he’d been in, whether it be D’Ablo’s office, the council room, or the kid’s little bedroom. It also meant D’Ablo had to keep an extra eye on him, just to make sure the child didn’t electrocute himself on some uncovered outlet or try to eat cat food.

Otis frowned and set the boy back down on the carpeted floor. Vlad managed to walk a few steps before falling back on his butt.

The boy looked up with dark eyes to D’Ablo, then he crawled off in the direction of his toys.

D’Ablo sighed and looked back to Otis, there had been a few times were he’d considered handing the boy over to Otis perminantly. The other vampire was far more equipped to deal with this type of thing.

The younger vampire was far more patient when the antics of a baby. So he’d be better at handling the boy than D’Ablo could ever hope to be.

Vladimir also seemed to like him just as much, it would be of little consequence if Otis were to raise the boy himself.

But there was a situation pertaining to Tomas. D’Ablo did not doubt for even the shortest moment that Tomas would not take kindly to D’Ablo handing the ‘possible God of all Vampire and Human kind’ over to the one vampire who definitely did not believe in the prophecy.

Otis didn’t even like someone bringing up the prophecy, let alone being put into a situation where he had to further it by raising the possible Pravus.

The sound of the doorbell chiming drew D’Ablo’s attention. Otis brushed past D’Ablo and over to the front door. Unlike D’Ablo, who would barely crack the door and get a good look before opening the door, Otis just opened the door with a broad grin on his face.

D’Ablo watched his new vice president great the Frenchmen before walking in, she smiled and walked over to place a small red bag on the coffee table next to Otis’ and D’Ablo’s gifts.

“And a good evening to you, Mr. President.” She said looking at D’Ablo.

The president nodded “hello Emily, I’m glad you could make it.” D’Ablo said, D’Ablo and the rest of his council had maintained some apprehension towards the female vampire.

It wasn’t that they thought she was unqualified for the possession she’d been elected into. No, she was more than qualified.

The problem was, that she’d been suggested by Em. There was an overhanging concern that Em thought Stokerton’s council was responsible for letting Tomas Tod slip out of Elysia’s grasp. Meaning, there might be an attempt to replace or disband the council entirely.

Of course, that might be their own paranoia. But the vampires who’d been on the council since the revolution, like D’Ablo, didn’t want to risk the possibility.

D’Ablo then looked back to Vlad. The boy was sitting on the floor, attempting to slip a triangle shaped block into a circle shaped hole on one of those colorful boxes with shapes cut into the sides.

Emily walked over to the little boy and smiled down at him “Hello little on, remember me?” she asked, leaning down towards him. The boy looked up at her, eyes locked on the vampire’s bright auburn hair.

The Halfling boy babbled and smiled before reaching up to grab the woman’s wavy hair. Emily shook her head and leaned back.

D’Ablo glanced back to Otis, who had the front door held up for the councils Secretary and Incident Control Officer walked in, each carrying their own gifts for the little boy.

Rustling of paper seemed to catch the toddler’s attention, his dark eyes locked on the bags and packages sitting on the short table. Vladimir got to his feet, the boy walked over on shaky legs.

D’Ablo leaned down and stopped Vladimir from grabbing the nearest bag “no, not yet” D’Ablo said, doing his best to gently push the boy in another direction.

The president then redirected the boy back to his toys so he’d play for a little bit.

Vladimir looked up at him, then waddle back over to his toys. D’Ablo watched him plop down and begin playing with a few oversized scattered blocks with letters and numbers on them. The boy liked to smash things together, why, D’Ablo was never sure.

Orander placed a box wrapped in balloon patterned paper on the table before walking over to the boy. “How has he been doing?” the vampire asked, watching the boy play.

“He’s been doing fine, I suppose, his teeth seem to be coming in just fine. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him.” D’Ablo said, folding his arms over his chest.

“Have you tried feeding him anything a little more solid?” Orander asked, kneeling down in front of the Halfling child.

“Some fruit, but that’s it.” The kid seemed to love that stuff, cantaloupe seeming to be his favorite, followed by strawberries of course.

Orander nodded again and turned his attention to Vlad, the boy seemed content with smashing one block against the others.

D’Ablo watched the council’s secretary reach out and began stacking the scattered blocks. D’Ablo would have told the other vampire that Vladimir, for whatever reason, didn’t like the blocks being stacked together.

But he thought he’d just let the other figure it out on his own.

A few blocks in, Vlad seemed to take notice of the slowly growing tower of blocks. The boy reached over and began knocking the blocks over, Orander pulled his hand back and looked at the kid.

“Well, I don’t believe that was very nice, little one.” He said, looking at the kid incredulously.

“Yeah, he doesn’t like it when his blocks are being stacked like that.” Otis said, “I’m not quite sure why, but he doesn’t like it.”

“Maybe he wants to stack them himself.” Aura said, sitting back on one of D’Ablo’s leather couches.

D’Ablo scoffed and said “yeah, I’m sure that he will once he learns how to.”

Slowly, the vampires then began to move on to other subjects. Talks of politics and current events from both the human world and the vampire world.

Every so often, the doorbell would ring and signal the arrival of another council member.

Not long after the arrival of the Council’s Treasurer, there was another ring. D’Ablo furrowed his brow, he was certain that all of the vampires from his council.

Slowly, the vampire opened the door, just in case it was some would be assassin. To both his relief and surprise it wasn’t an assassin.

It was both his sire and brother. D’Ablo opened a little more, eyes a little wider. “What are you doing here?” he questioned, looking at his twin.

Sombra gave him a smile and shook his head, as if it were more than a little simple.

“Otis called me, he informed me that the kid’s birthday would be coming up.” The vampire pushed his way past D’Ablo and into the house. “I came with a present for the little one.”

D’Ablo then noticed the gold wrapped box tucked under his brother’s arm.

D’Ablo then turned his gaze back to his sire “something tells me Otis called you as well.” He said, moving fully out of the door way.

“Yes, he did.” She shifted her gaze to him “you should involve me in things like this, I spend just as much time around that boy as you and your council.” She set a green polka doted bag next to the rest of the presents on the table.

D’Ablo closed the door and looked back to Otis, who was holding Vladimir. Again, that little voice in the back of his head suggested he let Otis take the boy for good.

The younger vampire seemed so happy with the toddler, and the toddler happy with his uncle. Otis had far more time than D’Ablo did. Running a council and making sure the kid was well fed and sleeping enough was possibly the most complicated thing he’d ever gotten himself into. Well, it was one of a long list. It probably didn’t actually top it, but it was there somewhere underneath all the wars and instabilities.

“I would have been here sooner, but I had to pick your brother up from the airport.” Lenore said, making her way over to the toddler and Otis. Vlad looked at her and grinned, the Halfling boy outstretched his arms towards the female vampire.

“Unfortunately, while I was able to get a flight out here on time, I wasn’t able to get a car on such short notice.” Sombra said, looking back at his twin.

D’Ablo just nodded, it had honestly not occurred to him to even mention the party to his brother or sire. It didn’t seem important enough.

Hell, he was taken by complete surprise when Ignatius seemed to have remembered and sent a package from New York.

It was a small, ornate knife that he’d picked out for the boy with a letter explaining that he wouldn’t be able to make it to Stokerton. Though, D’Ablo was

And Otis hadn’t taken too kindly to the present, muttering that such a thing wasn’t safe for a child and that the ‘old basterd’ should have given it a second thought before deciding to give a toddler a razor sharp knife.

D’Ablo had taken it to put up somewhere out of reach of the toddler’s curious grasp. He was sure that when the boy got older, if he even had him around that long, he may like such a present.

But for now, it would stay locked away.

D’Ablo sat back down, taking in a deep breath. Otis suddenly came over, setting Vlad down on D’Ablo’s lap. The president looked up at the Frenchmen, who merely smiled as he held out a red bag with white wrapping paper.

D’Ablo blinked curiously, “I assume you’d want to get all of this over with first before we move on to cake.” Otis said.

“I suppose so,” either way he’d have a huge mess to clean up anyways.

 

* * *

 

D’Ablo leaned in and picked up the pieces of shredded paper, it was only ten in the evening but the party hadn’t been intended to run very long. A few hours at the most.

It wasn’t abnormal for the council to gather for a small party with alcohol and such that would run into the early morning hours.

But with Otis explicitly demanding that nothing pertaining to alcohol be involved with the kid’s birthday party, it had ended much earlier than it normally would have. With each council member bidding their fair wells and heading out into the cold November night.

Otis had stayed behind, opting to keep the toddler busy as D’Ablo and his brother went about cleaning up. Luckily, most of the gifts had been in bags rather than in wrapped boxes. So the mess was a bit smaller than D’Ablo had expected.

Vladimir seemed to have taken to a large stuffed bear Otis had gotten for him, the soft stuffed toy was about the same size as the toddler himself. And the boy seemed just fine playfully tackling and attempting to bite the toy.

D’Ablo wasn’t quite sure if the boy’s growing tendency to bite was something that had to do with normal childlike behavior or something in his Vampiric insurance. For now, though, D’Ablo was just happy Vladimir was biting the bear instead of him.

As D’Ablo placed the sticky, icing covered plates in the sink, his brother walked past him “do you need any help?” Sombra asked, pausing buy the counter.

“If you can, pick up the glasses and bring them over.” D’Ablo said, running water into the sink. The president had gotten used to washing more than he used to when dealing with a child.

Unsurprisingly, children were ridiculously messy and would find a way to get dirty even in a clean environment.

D’Ablo had also learned to make sure he had an extra change or two of clothing at the council building.

His brother nodded and walked off to gather the empty cups.

When he returned, he moved to place them in the water in front of D’Ablo. The president began rolling his sleeves up, as to not get them soaked in the soapy water.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Sombra asked, once again grabbing his brother’s attention.

“Depends” D’Ablo said, it was a habitual response. People asked questions, a lot of questions. And some of those had answers he wasn’t allowed to give.

“It’s about the kid,” Sombra said, glancing back in the direction of the living room, where Otis was still sitting and playing with Vladimir. “Are you sure you want to continue taking care of him?”

D’Ablo paused, a small white plate in one hand and a wet rag in the other “there really isn’t any other option.” He said, glancing back to his twin.

“Otis seems to have taken to the boy better than anyone else, why not hand Vladimir over to him?” D’Ablo licked his lips, hesitating on his answer. He’d wondered the same thing many, many times. The council president placed the now clean dish on the drying rack next to the sink.

“It’s not that simple, Tomas-” D’Ablo began, but his brother cut him off “Tomas, of fucking course!”

D’Ablo was no stranger that there were vampires, his brother included, that didn’t like his former vice president. Some of them had good reasons to. Others could just seem to tell that there was something off about the raven haired vampire.

“Yes” D’Ablo huffs “it has something to do with Tomas.” He says, reaching down to grab another plate from the water.

“I don’t know how well he’d take to me going back on my promise to raise the boy.” D’Ablo was sure the other vampire would be more than angry if D’Ablo handed Vladimir over to Otis.

“And there is also the fact I don’t know how Otis will react when the boy begins to display powers no normal vampire has.” That seemed to silence his brother for a moment, like Otis, he didn’t seem to like discussing the prophecy and would often avoid the subject by passing it off as nothing more than a fairy tale.

“You really don’t think that toddler out there is some god on earth, do you?” Sombra questioned.

“I won’t deny the possibility.” D’Ablo shrugged, placing another plate on the drying rack. “Only time will tell if there’s something special about that kid.”

D’Ablo could tell the possibility of a baby becoming something more was making his brother a bit uncomfortable.

“And if he begins to show signs?” again, D’Ablo stopped. He’d thought of that a few times as well. He knew he couldn’t tell Em, doing that would make him and the boy a walking target.

And that was the last thing he wanted to deal with.

“I’ll do what I have to.” D’Ablo said, whatever his brother thought that meant, D’Ablo didn’t really care.

For all his brother had to know, D’Ablo meant he would inform Em.

Though, he didn’t plan to. Hell, he wouldn’t even consider it. It wasn’t that D’Ablo cared for Vladimir, more so that Stokerton’s council wasn’t the only responsibility he had.

And that responsibility involved the boy.

But that could all wait, Vladimir was still a baby and had a long way to go. Perhaps, a way that was much longer than ordinary vampires. D’Ablo would have to be patient, it would possibly take years for Vladimir to display any abilities.

D’Ablo was many things and he’d done many things. But he wasn’t about to torment an infant boy. no, he wasn’t like there step father. Despite what others may whisper, the council president’ wasn’t a complete monster.


End file.
